Contact Fouls Drop In Playoffs

January 19, 2005|By Charles Bricker Staff writer

PHILADELPHIA — A lot was written before the playoffs about how much more effective Peyton Manning and other quarterbacks would be with officials cracking down on those chucks, bumps and grabs by defenders past the 5-yard area from the line of scrimmage.

But in the eight playoff games, there have been only five illegal-contact calls, and only one in Indianapolis-New England. Those teams had crystallized the controversy over this rule when cornerback Ty Law tried to crawl inside receiver Marvin Harrison's jersey in the 2003 AFC Championship Game.

In five of the playoff games there wasn't one illegal-contact call.

Why? It's the NFL's general philosophy of "letting the players play" during the Super Bowl tournament, and that extends to other penalty areas as well.

There have been a few marginal hits at the sideline, which would have drawn a personal-foul call in the regular season. Officials are letting those go.

In fact, there have been only five calls made involving personal foul-type conduct in the playoffs. Despite the intensity of the Colts-Patriots game, special-teamer Larry Izzo, a former Dolphin, was the only player nicked by a conduct foul. He was called for roughing.

In the New York Jets-Pittsburgh game there was a roughing-the-passer call on linebacker Joey Porter of the Steelers. Linebacker Eric Barton of the Jets was flagged for his forearm hit on quarterback Drew Brees late in the San Diego game, and safety Brian Russell and defensive end Lance Johnstone of Minnesota were called for unnecessary roughness vs. Green Bay.

And that's all.

With the intensity of play turned up even higher for the second round, Izzo and Porter were the only recipients of roughness or unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties.

Also, overall penalty-calling is down. If you combine the average number of penalties for the two teams in each of the eight games, only once have they exceeded that aggregate number.

In the Rams-Falcons game this past weekend, for example, the combined average number of penalties for those two teams in the regular season was 14.9 a game. There were only eight penalties marched off against them in their playoff.

Reid on Vick

On Sunday the Eagles shut down one running quarterback, Daunte Culpepper. Now they get Michael Vick of the Falcons, the NFL's best-ever running quarterback.

"Daunte is fast, but this guy is real fast and might be a little bit more elusive," says Philadelphia coach Andy Reid.

"Daunte is going to knock you out, where this guy is going to run around you. You have to treat him differently than Daunte."

Reid has an elite pass-rusher in defensive end Jevon Kearse, who normally lines up on the left side.

Because Vick is left-handed and his natural roll-out side is left, defensive coordinator Jim Johnson might choose to flip-flop Kearse and defensive end Derrick Burgess and his backup, Jerome McDougle (of Pompano Beach).

But, Reid pointed out, "They're going to run the football, so we have to take our business there."

Lowering the boom

Dan Marino's election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame is only 19 days away and it should be one of the shining days of his life, but he doesn't appear to be happy with his TV studio mate Boomer Esiason, the former Bengals and Jets quarterback.

Esiason remarked this week that Manning seems destined to become the Dan Marino of his generation -- meaning records galore but no Super Bowl ring. Marino glowered at Esiason.

Tuesday, on a morning TV sports talk show, former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly, who is a close friend of Marino's, laughed it off.

"I'm waiting for those guys to put on the boxing gloves," he said. "That's just Boomer being Boomer."

The punch-out in Pittsburgh

Patriots coach Bill Belichick beat the NFL's best finesse team on Sunday, but there isn't much finesse about the Steelers, his opponent in the AFC title game.

"They're a team that, if you watch any Steelers game, we're all going to see pretty much the same thing in the running game, zone blitz package, their aggressiveness, their physical play -- they bring that every week,' He said. "They're a very physical team, one of the most physical in the league. We'll have to match that physical intensity. I'm sure that will be a big key to the game. You have to do that against the Steelers to have any chance at all to be competitive."